The Museum Overnight

A young woman spends the day at a museum. During the day, she removed the jacket she was wearing and placed it on one of the benches.  At the end of the day, as she is preparing to leave the museum, she realizes that she accidentally left her jacket on one of the benches. She returns to the exhibit where she removed it, and looks for it. The jacket is not on the bench. She then spends a few minutes walking through the exhibit looking for the jacket.

She leaves the exhibit and walks up to a staff member at the ticket counter, and says, “I left my jacket on one of the benches in the Modern Art exhibit. I just went to look for it, but it is no longer there. I wanted to see if there is a Lost and Found.”

The staff member from the museum says, “What does the jacket look like? I can check.”

The woman provides a brief description. After a few minutes, the staff member returns and says, “I don’t see it. At the end of the day, they take all the lost items and move them to a separate room. Since it’s after 5 pm, they must have removed all the items for the day. You can fill out this form and someone will contact you if they are able to find it.” 

The woman says, “Is it possible for me to look for the jacket? I left my watch inside one of the pockets. It is an antique watch that was given to me by one of my relatives. It has a lot of sentimental value.”

The staff member says, “I don’t know. It’s the museum policy to have visitors fill out a form to locate missing items. I will ask my supervisor.”

The staff member leaves. After a few minutes, she returns with her supervisor. The supervisor asks, “I understand you would like to look for a lost item. What did you lose?”

The woman explains that she lost her jacket and would like to look for it. The supervisor says, “I can take you to the room where we store lost items, but there are a lot of items. I would recommend filling out the form. If the item is located, we will contact you.”

The woman says, “I understand, but I would still like to look for it, if possible. I left a watch inside one of the pockets and it has a lot of sentimental value.”

The supervisor says, “Follow me, and I will take you to the room where we store the Lost and Found items.”

The woman follows the supervisor. They walk to the area where the elevators are located. The supervisor presses the button with the Down Arrow and they wait for elevator to arrive. Once the elevator arrives, they step into it and the supervisor presses the “L2” button. Once they arrive to the floor, they step off the elevator and walk down a long dark corridor. They pass a number of closed doors. At the end of the hallway, they reach a room, and the supervisor unlocks it.

The woman is not prepared for what she is about to see. The room is full of items. There are clothing racks packed with jackets and clothes. On top of the clothing racks, there are hats and other accessories. There are worn boxes that are heaping with shoes, boots, umbrellas, sweatshirts, hats, scarves, and toys. There are also boxes of glasses, cameras, and cell phones. There is a counter located in front of the clothing rack with boxes full of jewelry and watches. 

The supervisor says, “You can try to look for it.” before leaving.

The woman spends a few minutes trying to get acquainted with the room full of lost items.  She then walks over to the large circular coat rack that is full of items. She begins to sort through them, but it is not an easy task as they are placed tightly against one another. Fortunately, the pattern on her coat is a large black and white check pattern that stands out. She walks around the coat rack trying to identify it rather than sorting through the coats by looking at each coat on its hanger. She makes her way around the coat rack, but is not able to find her jacket.

She then begins to look through some of the boxes. She focuses on looking through the boxes with clothing items. She can’t believe how many lost items have accumulated. After about twenty minutes of sorting through the boxes, she realizes that she may not be able to find it, and decides that she will fill out the form so they can look for it.

As she turns to leave, she can’t help but notice her jacket hanging out from one of the boxes located in the corner. It is located in the corner at the front of the room and figures it must include all the items they have been lost more recently.

She quickly retrieves it and puts it on. She is relieved to feel the watch as she checks the pocket. She takes the watch out and is alarmed by the time. It is nearly 7 pm. The museum closes at 6 pm. She leaves the room and walks down the corridor to the elevator. She presses the Up Arrow and it immediately opens. She steps onto the elevator and presses the “L” button. She steps out of the elevator and walks into the vacant museum.

The museum has closed for the day. The lights have been turned off and there is not a person in sight. She approaches the main entry doors and pushes on the heavy doors. She is surprised to find that they are locked. She checks each of the doors, but they are all locked. She looks on the sides to locate an Emergency Exit button, but does not see one.

She walks back to the ticket counter trying to locate someone from the museum. The shades over the windows at each station have been pulled down.

The woman looks for a museum phone to call security, but does not see one. She then begins to walk around the museum to locate someone.

After walking around the main floor and not finding anyone, she decides to try and call the museum on her cell phone. She removes her cell phone from her purse and notices there is no service.

She decides to continue walking around the museum to locate someone. After walking around the main floor a second time, she decides to wait by the door. She figures if someone walks by, she can wave and grab their attention. She also keeps checking her phone and trying to make a call, but there is still no service.

It is now close to 9 pm. She still thinks that at some point she will find someone. She is also starting to get hungry. She recalls that there were a couple of vending machines in the hallway where the Lost and Found was located, and takes the elevator down to the lower level. She makes a few selections from the vending machines and takes the elevator back up to the lobby level. She sits on one of the benches in the lobby and has something to eat and drink.

She still thinks that it is only a matter of time before she sees someone or someone finds her. She walks to one of the exhibits, and as she nears the light sensors, the lights automatically turn on. She has not been through the exhibit so she decides to walk through it. She picks up a cassette player that is hanging next to the podium that is placed outside the exhibit and listens to the audio tour. As she walks through the exhibit, her presence is picked up by the light sensors and the lights turn on as she enters each room.

It is now after 12 am and she is getting tired. She places her coat on one of the benches and goes to sleep. She wakes at 6 am and waits by the door.

At around 7 am, someone from the museum unlocks the front door and is surprised to see the young women. She looks at the woman questionably and says, “Did you get locked in?”

The woman says, “I was here yesterday. I lost my jacket and they let me look for it in the Lost and Found. I didn’t realize the time and when I came up from the lower level the museum had closed for the day. The doors were locked. My phone has no service and I wasn’t able to find anyone from the museum.”

The person from the museum says, “Are you all right? Sometimes the wireless service goes down, I bet that happened. There is a security guard who walks around the museum and checks the surveillance cameras, but if the wireless goes down, the cameras don’t work.”

The woman says, “I’m fine. I spent the night walking through the Special Exhibit on display and slept on the one of the benches.”

The museum staff person says, “Before you go, I do have to check your bag. It’s our policy since the museum contains valuable items.”

The woman’s bag is checked and leaves the museum. She checks her phone to find a string of text messages from her friends “WHERE ARE YOU?????”